Tag: Great Synagogue of Vilna

A few years ago, Dr. Jon Seligman's visit to Vilna as part of a roots trip sparked the idea of digging up what was left of the compound and the synagogue.

This year's excavation uncovered large sections of the bimah, which was originally two stories tall, and was built in the 18th century with a donation from the rich and well-connected Yesod (Yehudah Safra ve-Dayana).

This important and magnificent synagogue was the center of study of the Vilna Gaon. In recent weeks, a delegation of archaeologists has uncovered two of the compound's ritual baths.

For the first time since the Holocaust the famous tunnel used by the prisoners of Ponar to escape from the Nazis had been located using new technologies for underground predictive scanning.

Israeli, Lithuanian and American researchers have tracked down the remains of the Great Synagogue of Vilna.